


mortem autem heros

by majimedeku



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Crying, Grief/Mourning, I Made Myself Cry, I Tried, M/M, Space Madness, Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Supportive Coran (Voltron), Team as Family, dont write when youre sad kids, i researched what happens when you dont have your helmet in space, its sad guys im sorry, the answer is a bad time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-13 08:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16889013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/majimedeku/pseuds/majimedeku
Summary: Chapter One: Keith and Lance are stranded in space. They spend their final moments together.Chapter Two: The paladins mourn their fallen brothers.





	1. mortem autem heros

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes when im sad i write vent fics to cope. this is one of those times. its pretty bad compared to my other stuff but eh whatever, enjoy anyway

Cold.

Space is so, so cold.

It’s also empty, vast, oblivion expanding far beyond Lance’s line of vision, surrounding them like a blanket of infinite nothingness.

 _Five_ _minutes_ _of_ _oxygen_ _remaining_.

Lance isn’t sure when he starts crying. One moment he’s clutching Keith’s hand like a lifeline and whispering encouragement, promising the world to a man who once had nothing. The next, tears stream down his face, and he knows death is approaching. He prays to the blackness of space, pleading for the others, for Keith to make it out of this alive. Keith pulls Lance closer to him, eyes glassy behind the shield of glass. Lance cries more. “Hey,” Keith murmurs, bringing Lance’s hand to his heart, “If we don’t make it out of here, I want you to know that I love you.”

“Stop saying we won’t make it!” Lance cries indignantly, ignoring the dread melting his mind like acid. “We’ll make it, Keith! The lions will come to us just like before, we’ll make it out of here alive, and we’ll go home and I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you!”

Keith’s eyes drop – he knows they won’t last much longer.

They reminisce about their Garrison days before Lance starts talking about how much his family will love Keith. The hope in his tone breaks Keith’s heart. “Mamá is going to fuss over you so much.”

“You sure she’ll like me?” Keith finds himself asking, a futile effort he knows better than to take part in. “I’m part of the alien race that’s taking over Earth.”

Lance squeezes Keith’s hand supportively, “you’re nothing like the Galra, Keith. You’re sweet and good-hearted, and did I mention beautiful? She’ll love you, the whole family will.” He opens his mouth to continue reassuring Keith before his eyes suddenly widen like he’s seeing something of great value to him; he’s talking before Keith can even ask what’s wrong. “Keith, look!”

He points excitedly at nothing, and Keith’s heart sinks. After hours and hours of floating aimlessly, directionless through the void, Lance is beginning to succumb to space madness.

 _One_ _minute_ _of_ _oxygen_ _remaining_.

Keith is crying now. There isn’t much time for them, and Lance is frantically pulling himself from Keith’s grip to try and float towards what he swears is one of the lions. “It’s Black, can’t you see her? Come on, Keith, we need to get to her!”

 _Thirty_ _seconds_ _of_ _oxygen_ _remaining_.

“Lance!” Keith pleads, holding Lance tighter and struggling to keep Lance still. “There’s nothing there, you’re starting to experience space madness!”

“Keith we have to go! Don’t you want to live?”

“Lance, _stop_!”

In a last ditch attempt to keep Lance from trying to float towards nothing, Keith grabs Lance’s helmet and pulls his face to meet his, clinking the plastic together. Lance finally, finally settles on Keith’s gaze long enough to let Keith speak. “Lance, there’s nothing there. Please, don’t do this…”

 _Ten_ _seconds_ _of_ _oxygen_ _remaining_.

Tears stream down his cheeks, and hands fall from Lance’s helmet sadly. Keith knows it’s over. “I love you.”

“Keith-”

As a final act of declaration, Keith slowly removes his helmet and launches it far away from them. Lance’s eyes widen and he scrambles for the helmet; it’s far too late, and fear wraps around his heart like a vice. He barely registers the lips pressed against his helmet, just over where his mouth is. Lips that have graciously danced with his own no less than a thousand times before. Keith’s eyes drift open as he parts from Lance with a peaceful smile – the purposeful act of self sacrifice shouldn’t look so graceful. “No no no no no, Keith, no! Please, you have to hold on!”

 _Zero_ _seconds_ _of_ _oxygen_ _remaining_.

Lance does what any man being deprived of oxygen would do: he panics. He grabs Keith’s face and even through the heat retaining material of his suit, the sensation is like nothing he’s ever felt. Space is just so cold. He’s begging, pleading, saying anything and everything. Keith shakes his head and grabs Lance’s wrists, turning to press a kiss to one palm before lowering Lance’s hands, eyes slowly drifting shut. Ten full seconds since running out of oxygen have passed. Logically, Lance figures that they each have at least another minute before it’s over. Summers swimming at Varadero Beach have prepared Lance for this moment, and Keith being half Galra gives him an advantage as well.

But space is so, _so_ cold, and they don’t have that much time. All the oxygen in their bodies has been ripped out, and no human being can survive that long without it.

It takes only a second for Lance to determine his next move. He removes his own helmet.

Space is so, so cold. As his blood begins to boil in his veins Lance captures Keith’s lips in a kiss so deeply passionate it could bring the heavens to ruin. The “I love you” barely makes it out, Lance holding Keith so tightly it’s a wonder he isn’t breaking bones.

They spend their last moments in each other’s arms, floating through the vast oblivion with no way of recovering.

The black lion is thirty seconds too late.


	2. heroibus ad planctum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Down two paladins, the others struggle to bring themselves together. They make it work eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man this is way better than the first chapter. For weirdo, who suggested adding a second chapter so they could see the paladin's reactions. This is for you, my friend.

Five people. Five stages of grief.

It’s was the first time anyone had seen Shiro cry.

Not even a man as calm and collected as Takashi Shirogane stood a chance against the soul consuming grief that shattered his resolve into a billion shards. His brother, his _family_ was dead, and it was all his fault. Logically he knew that wasn't the truth, but grief can do terrible things.

No one was prepared to bring Lance and Keith’s corpses aboard the black lion.

They had to stop on a planet just south of where the bodies were found floating, lifeless. It was there they were meant to gather their bearings and regroup to form a new strategy, plan of attack, a new angle.

They wouldn’t be able to form Voltron without them, after all.

The first to react was Pidge, who immediately denied the truth and started running vitals. “There’s no way they’re gone, no way, there has to be some signs of life!” With limited access to technology she swore they could still be alive, swore that there was even the tiniest shred of life within them.

There wasn’t.

 _Denial_.

Despite Pidge’s insistence, Keith and Lance did not wake up from their eternal slumber, not even after they were loaded into the portable pods and kept there for what had to have been days. “The healing pods latch on to any sign of life in order to heal whoever is inside,” Allura had said despondently. “I’m… Afraid there is nothing we can do.”

“There has to be something!” Shiro had cried, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Allura, please, we can’t give up hope yet. There’s a solution to this, we can fix this, we can bring them back.” Shiro is a man of determination. He doesn’t quit until he finds a solution – just because fate seems so linear doesn’t mean they couldn’t find a way to overcome this.

They couldn’t.

 _Bargaining_.

“They’re dead, Shiro!” Allura’s uncharacteristic outburst was only beginning. Her body was fueled with righteous anger over the death of her friends, and it was only going to get worse. “Can’t you quiznaking see that?! We were too late to save them and we’ve lost two paladins, two _friends_. There isn’t any bringing them back, we can do nothing!”

She was right.

 _Anger_.

Her anger only broke Shiro more, and lying on top of the pod holding his dead brother he cried harder. Allura, still fuming, broke down too. Together they weeped over the bodies of the goner paladins. Pidge soon joined them, only after frustratedly launching her scanner away from her when she found no vitals.

Hunk and Coran did not join them.

In terms of how they were taking it, Hunk was right there with Shiro. The grief of losing his best friend was too much for him to bare, and he could no longer find it in him to try and be the mediator, the one who set aside his own troubles to help his friends first. He couldn’t step in with a sympathetic ear and a motivational speech.

He couldn’t even motivate himself.

 _Depression_.

Coran kept his cool the entire time. Between crying, reminiscing about the good times and heatedly arguing new strategies with how to proceed with saving the world with only three-fifths of Voltron, the remaining paladins chose to come to Coran when they needed to express their grief.

Shiro came first. He pulled Coran aside and thanked him for all he had done for them all, especially for Lance and Keith. Brushing off his own emotional state, he discussed the others and talked strategy. Coran leant his ear and an eccentric story of overcoming hardship before Shiro thanked him a final time and excused himself to check on the others. Though brief, their talk aided Shiro immensely. Coran made a note to talk to Shiro again so he could really get to the bottom of Shiro’s feelings.

Next came Allura. She broke down in his arms before sniffling, “I’m so sorry, Coran. I know it is unbecoming for me to be in such a state.”

“You’re grieving, princess,” he had reminded her. “Your father always taught you that emotions were not a bad thing to experience in times like this. Just remember what he told you about persisting even when the odds were stacked against you.” She had hugged him tightly and promised that despite what she was feeling, she would persist because it’s what Lance and Keith would have wanted.

Pidge rambled her way into it without even realizing what she was doing. Coran had let her talk, recall fond memories they shared with this easy smile on her face that quickly dropped when she remembered the situation. “I just can’t believe it, Coran… It doesn’t feel _real_.” More rambling followed, rambling Coran listened intently to until Pidge fell asleep resting at his side. Shiro eventually came to collect her and helped the others settle down for the night.

Hunk was emotionally distant for several days until he found himself sitting down with Coran. A hundred superficial anxieties proceeded his true struggle, but as time went on he finally got the words out. “Lance was my best friend. He was the first other leg, you know? I love everyone here but it was Lance who I was closest to. Now that he’s gone… I don’t know how I can move forward, Coran. The universe is going to be obliterated without Voltron, and there’s nothing we can do…”

Coran sighed, “you know, Lance cared a lot about you, Hunk. He and I would frequently speak with one another about various topics, and you were one of the more popular ones.”

Hunk, who had been holding his head in his hands struggling to keep tears at bay, lifted his head with watery eyes, “really?”

“Oh yes!” Coran had informed him, a reassuring tone that momentarily set Hunk’s mind at ease. “He was always so proud of you for fighting, even when you really wanted it all to stop. He said your bravery was one of his favorite things about you.”

At this, Hunk began to cry. Through tears he talked about how selfless and witty Lance was before eventually shifting into his friendship with Keith and how he always admired his strength and determination. When it was time to speak again, Coran chose his words carefully, “you know what they would have wanted for us, don’t you?”

Hunk sniffed, “they would have wanted us to never give up, even without them here to fight with us.”

“That’s right,” Coran agreed. “We have suffered a great loss recently, and things look incredibly bleak. But we will pull through as a team, just like we always have.”

Hunk contemplated for a moment before nodding solemnly, “you’re right… Thanks, Coran, I needed this.” As he rose to begin making his way back to the team, Hunk turned to ask a question that had been resting in the back of his mind ever since the others started showing the five signs. “Coran? I don’t get it, how have you been so calm this entire time?”

Coran cast his gaze aside for a moment before answering, “I have seen countless tragedy in my time, my boy. I quickly learned that I could channel my emotions into a healthier outlet that would benefit not just myself, but others as well. I have learned to accept that some things happen that we are powerless to stop. It is with this realization that we harness the power to persevere.”

Keith and Lance may be gone, but what’s done is done.

 _Acceptance_.

That evening, Shiro sat everyone down to discuss their next move. It was Shiro who brought up the subject of the inevitable: they needed to regroup with Krolia and inform her of the situation. Cosmo whined and rest his head on Shiro’s lap, earning him a sympathetic pet. “The Blade needs to know, but telling her is first priority. We need to meet up with her as soon as we can. I have made contact with Kolivan; we are meeting with them first thing tomorrow. Get some sleep everyone, it’s been a long day.”

When the time comes, it’s Shiro who breaks the news with a heavy heart. Kolivan appears indifferent, though sympathetic in his own way – they all know deep down that Keith’s death affects him far more than he would ever admit. Krolia, strong-willed as she is, does her best to keep herself together. In the end, she does what is expected of a grieving mother and shed a few tears before immersing herself in planning, knowing it’s what her son would have wanted.

There’s talk of holding a makeshift funeral for the fallen heroes, the argument being that there simply wouldn’t be time to hold one on Earth. Planning falls short in light of an attack – the paladins go in knowing they’re at a heavy disadvantage but fight with all they've got. From the shared space of the astral plane, Keith and Lance watch their friends with baited breath, clutching each other’s hands and squeezing whenever a paladin takes a hit. They end up succeeding, but barely. Keith and Lance cheer for their friends, despite knowing they won’t be heard. The future is uncertain, likely to be full of heavy hearts and battles fought to the death.

Still, the paladins fight hard and stick together – after all, it’s what Keith and Lance would have wanted.


End file.
